


This Ice Burns

by MrFries



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Assassin Clarke, Azgeda!Clarke, Badass Clarke, F/F, Fighting, Gore, Ice Nation - Freeform, No CoL, No Farm Station, Post Season 2, Presumed Dead, Slow Build, Some Charactors Die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-09-26 07:51:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9874346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrFries/pseuds/MrFries
Summary: Clarke is tormented by her demons, so she goes to slay them. Clarke goes to Ice Nation to get training and becomes a badass while everyone is searching for her, when they can't find her they think she is dead.OrWhere Clarke is a Badass Ice Nation warrior and no-one can find her.





	1. New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time write Fan Fiction. It's a slow build fic, so be patient with it!

** Chapter 1: New Beginnings **

Once she had said her goodbyes to Bellamy she turned her back and walked towards the forest, each step feeling like a punch to her gut. She turned her head back to see Bellamy’s glossy eyes watching her intently, but she still continued on and didn’t look back after that.

Upon entering the treeline all she could see around her was the faces of all those that died in Mount Weather, all her friends of the original hundred that died. Finn, his face was always next to her, he tormented her. He was close, but every time she reached out to him, he was gone.  
After several days of walking around the trees in directions unknown to her, her survival instinct finally kicked in. She needed food, water and warmth. She set about getting these things as fast as possible. Water, she needed a fresh water source. She thought about when they first landed and when Jasper got speared by the river, she tried to think where that was but her mind was too full of death. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, she knew she needed to suffer for what she had done. It was the only way. She continued step-by-step trying to figure out where she was, looking around for anything she knew. It all looked like forest to her and she couldn’t tell any difference from each tree she saw, each rock, each branch… it was all the same. She started panicking, realisation kicking in that she is lost, with nothing to survive with and she will die out here. Perhaps that’s what she deserves, after all she’s done. Yes, Bellamy put his hand on that lever with her, but she was the one who really pulled it.

After a few moments of thought, she heard a snap of a stick. She spun around to find nothing around her, just trees! Always trees, she thought.

Suddenly, she heard voices coming from around her, but not like the ones in her head, real voices. Voices of real people, alive people. She felt happy by it until she realised that she didn’t want people to see her. See her weak, take advantage of it or try and help her. She didn’t need their pity of help, they would never understand what she had to do, even if it was for a good cause. Or was it, she thought, was it really worth hundreds of lives to save around 50. Of course it was, they’re her friends and Mount Weather was killing them, it was what was necessary. She can’t forget what Lexa had done, making a deal with the Mountain Men, it was all her fault they were dead.

Another noise snaps Clarke back into reality and she can tell that someone is coming near, but why are they being noisy. They must want to be heard, or is it a child, she asks herself.

 

* * *

 

 

 She turns to be face-to-face with a deer, the deer stares at her for a second but as soon as Clarke goes to grab her gun the deer bolts and it’s gone out into the distance.

After her adrenaline going down a bit after her fright of a person walking up on her, she felt tired, she hadn’t slept in days. Her throat was dry and croaky, her stomach churned, she was not in a good way. She slowly ambled across the leaves, trying not to make a noise but failing, searching for food. Luckily for her, she came across a group of deer drinking from a stream, she thought that her luck can’t be that bad if she managed to get this, until she thinks that she can’t actually kill the deer without alerting everyone around her for miles, maybe her luck isn’t so good. She thinks for a second about what she should do, she comes up with making a makeshift knife and using it. She grabs a reasonably sharp thick stick from near her and starts carving a knife using the rock that she is posted behind. She’s not sure how long it took but it’s sharp enough for a decent cut. She stands up, wobbling a bit due to the lack of strength she has from water, food and sleep deprivation.

She holds the knife in her hand and holds it tight, her knuckles going white with the hold she has on it. She thinks about which deer she should go for, the baby will have less meat but will be the easiest to kill and the adult ones will have more meat but harder and most likely too fast for her. With sorrow, she chooses the baby deer, she sneaks up surprisingly well for non-native and is about to charge the baby deer, but she can’t make herself kill an innocent deer, she’d much rather paint the scene before her. The baby deer is between to other deer who are all drinking from the stream that passes by, the trees around the deer makes one of the best scenes she has has of earth life. She chooses to kill an adult, she sprints and hops over the last rock between her and the prey and brings the knife down onto the back of the deer. A clean cut, she thinks. The deer falls to the floor whimpering while the other two scurry off into the woods. She drops to her knees and almost cries at the look the deer has, fear. The deer’s eyes are wide with it, looking at her waiting for death. She quickly slices up through the throat of the deer.

“Yu gonplei ste odon”, she says. She suddenly realises what she said and feels confused, it felt natural. She’s more worried about how raspy her voice sounded however, from all the sobs and nights without sleep or water her throat was like a desert.

She cut through the meat the best she cut, her hands covered in blood, that’s when it all came flooding back. The memories, all of the dead in Mount Weather. Jasper staring at Maia’s lifeless body, his hand bloody. All the children, all the innocents… the ones who helped them. She started crying immediately and started rubbing her eyes with her bloody hands. She then goes to drink from the stream, washing her hands and watching the water run red with the blood. She dipped her hands in a got some water in her cupped hands and drank, sighing with relief. She continued to drink for what felt like too long until she couldn’t move. She was tired, all her muscles stopped. Her bones felt heavy and she lay down on the forest floor and slept, the first night she got a few hours sleep before the nightmares came back.

 

* * *

 

_“Clarke…”, the voices whispered into her ears as she walked away from Mount Weather. Her strides were getting smaller and smaller no matter how hard she tried to run, she slowed and slowed. She wasn’t in control, they were. She turned her head back towards Mount Weather and saw the Commander standing there, with eyes of regret. Clarke’s body pushed towards her, no matter how hard she tried to stop herself, she kept going. Lexa’s eyes looked deep into her soul and Clarke couldn’t do anything but stare. She was angry, but she wasn’t sure who with, the Commander or Lexa. They were like two different people, the person she saw the first time they met was the Commander, her glare just made you want to keel over and give up. Lexa however, was much nicer, calmer, she was the kind one that Clarke started to like. The one who kissed her in the tent, who was it now though? Was that all a plan, to gain Clarke’s trust just for her advantage, she should have listened to everyone else. Clarke suddenly had her movements back, she used this to her advantage grabbing the gun at her hip and pointing it directly at the Commander’s head. She just looked at Clarke with the mask she always uses, emotionless. The brunette just leant onto the barrel of the pistol and said,“Moba, Clarke kom Skaikru”, after everything that had happened Clarke just wanted to kill Lexa, she had forced her to pull the lever, it was her fault they were dead, now she had the chance to kill her she couldn’t and she hated herself for that. It’s weakness, that’s what it is, love is weakness. Everything started turning black and suddenly no-one was where her pistol was pointed, everything just faded away._

 

* * *

 

The blonde woke a bit startled by everything that had happened, could she really kill Lexa? Surely she could, she wanted to she needed to. Even if she did, would it help? It never helped killing the Mount Weather Sniper who killed many in TonDC. Soon enough she came back to reality and realised she fell asleep next to the stream. She felt horribe sleeping in the mud and she could smell herself, it was pretty bad. She stood up, brushed herself down and then set-up a campfire, she was surprised by how warm the night must have been, or how tired she was. Most nights when she was walking she was cold, freezing in fact, and that seemed not to happend last night, in fact nothing happend last night. She didn’t even wake, almost every night since she landed she woke when she heard some step by her door on the Ark, or the rustle of a tent when they first landed.

She wondered if she should make camp somewhere around here and just live out the rest of her days out here, secluded from everyone. She can’t, she has to return some time soon. She needs to see her people, her family, her mother. Maybe when she’s ready, she thinks. She needs to cook the food she has, then she will think about what to do. Thinking of earth skills class she grabs a bird’s nest as well as some sticks and starts making a fire, a few minutes later and a fire is roaring. Clarke sits beside it and gets a stick a slips the meat onto it and sticks it over the fire. After a few hours of cooking and eating, Clarke’s full and decides it’s best to head out. She checks to make sure her pistol is in the holster, on her thigh.

As soon as she left her ‘camp’ she suddenly felt lost again, the trees towering above her, watching her. Her body felt much more relaxed after a while of stepping over stones, hopping fallen trees, she lost herself in the rhythm of it all.

A few hours into her walk to.. Who knows? She saw something behind a tree. This wasn’t like the visions, they stalked her but made themselves known and tormented her. This was a grounder, she ducked down behind a fallen log and peered out into the distance.

A child came around from a tree holding a short crude blade, he was probably about 7 years old and scruffy. His face was covered in mud and his clothes tattered. He was walking surprisingly gracefully for a child. He held his sword with confidence, but it was swaying from side-to-side from his lack of muscle. He carried on through the forest, blending in with the background as all Trikru warriors do.

 

* * *

 

 

“What do you mean she left!” Abby shouted towards Bellamy.

“She left… It’s after what she had to do to get them here.” he replied cooley.

“What did she do that could be so bad?”

Everyone who knew had sad faces and waited to see what Bellamy would say, they all knew Abby wouldn’t take it well. There was no way around it though, no-one would be able to hide around what had been done.

“She..”, he took a pause,”She killed them all..” he said quietly.

Abby was speechless, her head lowered slightly her eyes visibly darkened. How could _her_ Clarke do that? Clarke was the most caring person on the Ark that she could think of.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me Chancellor. I have things I need to do.”

Bellamy walked towards the Ark, he needed to get guard rotations up, who knew when the grounders would attack or if they would. But, if they did they had to be ready.


	2. Fresh Wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke finds a new land, north of Trikru land. What will she find there?

**Chapter 2: Fresh Wounds**

  


Her first sight of another human since leaving was strange, she had followed him for a while now and he seemed to know where he was going, but Clarke didn’t.

 

She had followed him for about an hour before deciding to turn back and get some rest, the last bit of light splitting in between the trees, giving a very eerie effect on the land.

 

She had to get some more food and knew hunting was no longer an option, she left her knife near her fire, where she thought she would stay for a while, which she didn’t. So foraging was the only thing left to do, sadly she didn’t have as much Earth Skills experience than everyone else due to being in solitary.

 

She did get a few 1-on-1 lessons, though, and those definitely came in handy with what to eat and what not to eat, however, she couldn’t always trust what she thought she could remember, she needed to be certain. On the ground, it’s life your death. You against all odds,  against everyone, and she needed to win.

 

The visions were slowly becoming a part of her lifestyle, their voices just a peck at the back of her head, the faces blend into the trees and the blood staining her hands looks like mud.

 

After some foraging for berries, nuts and anything else she could find she counted up what she had, 22 brown-green berries she remembered being edible, and 12 black colored berries that she wasn’t too sure about, but would do as a last resort.

 

* * *

 

After another cold night, she wandered aimlessly through the woods until she came to a crossing, a river crossing that left the woods into a larger more plain land area. With little experience in the wild, she couldn’t tell how long ago, but footprints were embedded across the land, making her believe perhaps this crossing was a bit too good to be true.

 

The only thing she could think of is the boundaries of the clan land. Which clan owned the land ahead, who knew? Perhaps it would be death, or perhaps it would bring her more freedom. All she knew is that putting one foot in front of the other was the only thing she could do at that moment.

 

A little while past the river crossing she begun to see snow forming around her, it looked as though it were quite fresh, but some footprints seemed to show otherwise. She tried to rack her brain of which clan had snow, there were a few she thought could have it. The main contenders being Ice Nation, and the Plains Riders.

 

* * *

 

Abby was beyond emotion at that point, her eyes gray and heavy as she walked around camp Jaha. The name didn’t feel right, Jaha was alive as far as they knew and he had left them as soon as he got the chance. He was no honorable man any longer, he was a deserter.

 

“-defense could be compromised to the nor-” Abby was slipping in and out of the conversation with Kane, too busy think about if her daughter is even alive. If she was, when would she return and if she did, what would be different?

 

“-bby, are you listening?” Kane asked calmly, sensing something was off with Abby, her eyes fixed on the forest Clarke had left to. He had never understood what having a child was like, as well as the responsibility. Even without that, he could tell that Abby was worried about Clarke. Everyone was, even him and he mostly found her too stubborn to be any good. But she was smart, most of the time.

 

“Abby, if you want to take a break from thi-” Kane was cut short with his comments from Abby.

 

“I’m fine, Kane, just a little tired that’s all. Now, you said about defensive issues?”

 

“Yes, we believe the only are the defense could be compromised is to the north side, which is slightly weaker due to the way we landed and the terrain we have to work with” he stated as though he were saying a simple fact like that the sun shines.

 

“Is there anything we can do to fortify that area, another set of defenses? Double up guarding?”

 

“Yes, we have double the guards, with Bellamy as Commander of the Guard you will need to speak with him about what his plans are as well, obviously as chancellor your decision is the one we want and need, but you best place trust in him. I think he will show his true colours as a good leader and smart tactician.”

 

“Very good, Kane, please take some rest I haven’t seen you sleep since we got the kids back.”

 

“Likewise, chancellor.” He winked as he walked off.

 

* * *

 

Clarke awoke to a dark cave, her fire had gone out and that left her rather cold in the cave. Luckily the darkness meant that the faces weren’t there either. It gave her time to think about what had happened. How her life had changed so much over the year. One year ago, she was sat in a cell with chalk, drawing pictures of what Earth looked like. Now, she was sat in a freezing cave, on the ground, as a leader and murderer. She didn’t care what people saw, she was a murderer, no life has a reason to be taken and shouldn’t be taken without necessity. But the grounders don’t see it quite the same, jus drein jus daun , blood must have blood.

 

She decided she needed to get out into the outside world to get a grip on reality and banish the thoughts of murder after all that’s what this trip is for. If you could call it a trip, it was much more like a suicide mission than anything else.

 

Upon exiting the cave the first thing she noticed was the white of the air where she was breathing. It confused her, having been the first time she noticed this. She remembered something from Earth Skills to do with the cold making your breath go white.

 

All she knew was that it was cold, very cold. Not the cold of the Ark when the heating wasn’t turned up enough or the cold of the floor in forests. This was a new kind of cold, it made your bones ache and feel as though they haven’t moved since the bombs went off.

 

The cool breeze is the next thing that hit her, her face feeling the full force of the winds that were howling into the cave entrance. This was definitely Ice Nation, and winter was coming. She knew that trying to survive in this weather was suicide, furthermore if she wanted to kill Lexa she needed the best training. And who best to go to for that than Ice Nation?

 

She knew she needed to seek out the Ice Queen, Nia. She wanted Lexa dead, and so did Nia. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

 

* * *

 

“Heda” The guard bowed his head, “Clarke kom Skaikru has taken the mountain.”

 

At this Lexa turned around to face the guard, she couldn’t seem affected by this, but she was, she needed to use ‘Commander Mode’.

 

“Send our scouts to watch the Skaikru and make sure they don’t try to attack before we know.”

 

“Yes, Heda.” The guard bowed as he walked off.

 

She could hear the barking of orders in the background, she was too focused on the fact that the mountain had been taken. Clarke wouldn’t dare use those weapons against them, would she? She had to understand what she did was the best for her people and she took the opportunity. The look in Clarke’s eyes when she realized about the deal plagued her nightmares, the eyes staring deep into her soul, she knew she had caused much greater effect than she had thought at first. There was nothing she could do to change that, however, now she could at least try and get through the consequences of her actions.

 

The scouts that were watching the mountains movements were already spreading stories by the time she left her tent. The scouts speaking of the ‘Wanheda, Commander of Death’. All about how she killed them all, the stories spoke about her killing each one with her bare fists to killing 7,000 warriors from behind. The stories were endless and spreading like wildfire through the camp, some people who had returned to their families. Little did she know how much what Clarke had done would come to bite her back.

  


By the next morning, Clarke had left the safety of her cave and was exploring the wilderness, she needed to find a village so the people could take her to Nia, it was the only way she would learn to survive. Maybe the distraction would allow her to forget what she had done, maybe she would learn to live with it. Nothing could get worse than it was.

 

The stars were barely visible so she decided she should head due North, so she wouldn’t loop back on herself and if things got too bad she could find her way back to the cave.

 

Finding a village couldn’t be too hard, right?

 

* * *

 

 

“And what should we name this place then?” Bellamy asked, intrigued with a change of camp name.

 

“I think it should be something to do with the Ark, since it’s the building ground of this whole place, don’t you agree chancellor?” Kane spoke up.

 

“I agree on Kane, but what would you propose the name as then, Ark... Arkadia?” Chancellor Abby said.

 

“I think that name suits it,” Bellamy said, the other members of council nodded.

 

“Very well, tomorrow at dawn we will announce the changes. Any other points that need to be brought up now?”

 

“What about Clarke, we have search parties don’t we?” The eldest council member asked, wondering what was going on with the child.

 

“We haven’t, even if we did, they would be picked off by grounders or captured. With our numbers, we don’t have enough guards or weapons to spare for the guards needed. Also, if we found her, wouldn’t she just leave again? If we lock her up, we may as well have just left her outside.” Bellamy said, a glint of sadness behind before his walls go back up and the sadness goes away, his stoic mask returning to its usual place.

 

But Abby noticed it, she wondered how Bellamy had felt with Clarke leaving, he seemed to be handling well considering how much he seems to care for her, or maybe he just hides it. That seems to be the case with everyone, but she couldn’t hide them. It was her daughter, and she was just supposed to let it go, then again, they have done worse. They all have. Sending children to the ground, it’s just the same, isn’t it?

 

* * *

 

After a few hard days of walking, Clarke saw the first signs of civilization. Sadly, each night was colder than the last, heading North as well as the impending winter isn’t such a good plan after all. Maybe that’s the pain she needs, to receive the death of hundreds, to pay in blood.

 

A road, is what she had found, all roads lead to civilization, right? So, she just decided to head onto the road, with little no care about who saw her. The crunch of stone under her worn boots made her an easy target for anyone, but she didn’t care. Who would be this far north to attack a defenseless woman?

 

That simple question was answered fairly quickly by the shouting of warriors, in what she assumed was Trigedasleng. She looked around to see where these people were hiding, but she saw no sign of humans, let alone people with weapons. The word ‘Wanheda’ was common with them, and she had no idea what it meant.

 

After a short while of shouting and her looking around scared, a young man walked up. His armor covered in fur and pelts of wolves. He was a large built man, with muscles toning everywhere, from head-to-toe. Clarke was astounded with the man’s physical build but was stopped from admiring him by his question.

 

“What brings you here, Wanheda?” He said with a smirk on his face like he knew something she didn’t.

 

“Wanheda? I’m Clarke…?”, she spoke timidly. The man looked at her with a laugh, “I’m here to speak with Nia.” She said this with much more confidence than she felt, it seemed that this wiped the man’s smirk off his face. He turned to the stoic warrior that she’d expect from a man like him.

 

“Jak em op krom Nia!” He shouts towards his warriors, suddenly 3 warriors all dressed in white paint and furs jump down from the trees by the roads. They grab her arms and tie them up tightly. A bag is then placed on her head.

 

She tries to kick out, failing miserably, the warriors seem to be everywhere she’s not.

 

After realizing it’s a lost cause, she stops kicking and lets herself get dragged. She is pulled onto a wooden board and hit to the side of the head.

  
Red of the blood is the last thing she sees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like that chapter, I'm hoping to get chapters out every one-to-two days. Each one will probably be around 2k words. No less, ever! Comment what you liked or didn't like as I'm always trying to improve my writing skills. This is my first fix and may be quite a long one, we'll see how the story goes. Hope you enjoyed and sorry for the slight lengthy notes, 
> 
> Have fun! :D


	3. Cold As Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke joins the Ice Nation, Some people party, Lexa worries about the coalition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the end of the last chapter was confusing, the reason she was knocked out is that Nia would originally want Clarke dead, like she wants to in the show to gain the power. She can get more power however if she can command that power, and she would be a great assassin against the commander.
> 
> Hope that cleared it up, enjoy this chapter. 
> 
> Sorry for not updating yesterday.

**Chapter 3: Cold As Ice:**

 

The sound of hooves trotting was slowly becoming a background noise. She wasn’t sure how long she had been being brought along with the Ice Nation troops, it felt like a few days. But, with the cold and no idea of the time, she had lost track of days. It all felt the same, she was lying on something cold, she knew that. Every so often she would hear some shouting and once she had been given food and drink, the rest of the time she has just seen black, the bag clouding all light from coming on her face.

 

Before long, she felt herself drifting into a restless sleep. She never slept properly, she couldn’t. Her head thumped hard, but it was bearable, the one question she couldn’t get out her head was who is ‘Wanheda’ and if Nia wanted to speak with her, why would she need to be brought by a guard, surely the leader of Skaikru would be a great negotiation chance.

 

Whatever was going to happen, she would face it as bravely as possible. If she would die, she would die in a good way, in a strong way.

 

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of shouting from far away, soon after the sound of a gate creaking open. She knew they must have arrived at where Nia would be.

 

A few minutes passed while she could hear people talking, most likely citizens of Nia’s city. Soon, however, all that stopped and so did whatever she was moving on. A few seconds stretched to feel like several hours, she waited. The bag was ripped from her head and the light shining down made her squint and have to take the time to adjust.

 

A young warrior, no older than 16 was in front of her, in pelts of wild animals. He stepped grabbing her and picking her up, out of what she could now see as a carriage. He leads her behind him out of the room they had stopped in. Once outside, she could see it was a barn, on the outside of the main castle. It was a brilliant building, and if she wasn’t as nervous as she was or being dragged by an Ice Nation guard, she would appreciate the beauty of the building. It looked like a palace, built into the side of a mountain. It had intricate designs and lots of ice sculptures around it. Not the place you would expect a psycho leader to live.

 

* * *

 

“Shit!” Raven shouted, kicking the box she was working with.

 

“It’s okay Raven,” Monty said, trying to soothe Raven’s anger. She was working on an audio device used to incapacitate people. It wasn’t going too well, but he believed in Raven’s ability, “you’ll get it done, you just need a break. Come on we’ll go get Octavia and have a break.” he said while pulling Raven along by her wrist.

 

Once they had found Octavia they all went outside into the cool night. Octavia had recently been out of the walls secretly with Lincoln. She was just telling about how the night had ended with an interesting scene in the middle of the woods.

“ Okay, now. Raven I’ve got the perfect thing to take your mind off your work.” He said while pulling out a full bottle of moonshine, the most alcoholic drink you could think of, and three shot glasses.

 

“ Where did you get this?” Raven asked while grabbing the bottle out his hand and pouring it into a small glass she had been given by Monty.

 

“ Jasper and I made it a while back, before…” Monty trailed off, looked sad. He then grabbed one of the glasses he had brought with him and poured out his and Octavia’s drink.

 

They all downed one drink quickly, they had already had a second drink before the first one kicked in, they all knew it would be a good night.

 

* * *

 

“ Welcome, Clarke,” Nia spoke as she entered the main hall. Clarke could tell Nia was respected here, probably more so than the commander. Nia was sat upon a throne made of Ice with pelts and skulls of the most feared animals around it. “What brings you here?” She asks, with that smirk on her face.

 

“ I come to join the ranks of the Azgeda,” Clarke says, quickly.

 

At this, Nia’s smirk turns into a full blown smile for a second, then back to the stoic facade of any other leader.

 

“ You wish to join the army? Why would you do that?” Nia asks, intrigued but wary of what Clarke was proposing. It seemed almost too good to be true. The one person who can get to the Commander as well as the only one who could overthrow her, throwing herself into the arms of Ice Nation on purpose? She had received word that Clarke didn’t know her legends, but this is still quite a weird thing for a leader to abandon her people, let alone the chance for deception.

 

“ I come to learn. I know how powerful your army is and I knew you would be the people to be able to teach me.” Clarke said, trying to sound as persuasive as possible, she couldn’t say she wanted to kill the Commander. Maybe the Ice Nation had become more friendly with the Commander since the Mountain attack, she couldn’t risk death too soon.

 

“ Very well Clarke, we have much to do,” Nia said, standing up. Two guards came behind her and put pads on her shoulders as well as a fur coat and cape. The cape flowing down around her, showing her strength off. One of the guards attached a sword to her hip, a shining silver sword with ice spike imprinted into the metal, whilst the other put a glass crown around her head.

 

All confidence had left her by the time she was walking with the Queen. Each footstep echoing down the halls, the walls of which were filled with trophies of different animals and beasts. For someone who was so feared, she seemed like a great royalty here.

“You have much to learn, Clarke,” Nia said swiftly, trying to hide the excitement in her voice, having Wanheda bow before her made her very excited.

 

“When do we begin?” Clarke asked, trying to sound as confident as possible, she was nervous, very nervous.

 

“Now.” Nia said casually,”You will be taught how to survive, by Karim.”, she spoke whilst they left the palace. The city was below them and she could see how big it was now.

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, why was I tied up to be brought here?” Clarke asked, testing to see if she had overstepped any boundaries.

 

“Precautions,” Nia said quickly, before stepping down the grand stairway down towards to city.

 

* * *

 

“Heda, the Nightbloods are restless awaiting your arrival,” Titus said, catching up to Lexa, who was pacing her quarters

 

“Very well, Titus, I will practice with them tomorrow, there is a greater problem at hand.” She said, waving off Titus.

 

Titus, obeying Lexa’s command left the quarters and went down towards where the nightbloods were kept for their safety. He opened the doors to find all the children looking at him expectantly waiting for Lexa’s arrival. She had never postponed any chance to see the nightbloods and was confused how one Skaikru’s disappearance was such a great matter, the more gone the merrier, he thought.

 

All the nightbloods visibly sighed, seeing that Lexa was not with Titus, they started shuffling around talking about what must be wrong, since she never denied their company.

 

“Get rest now, you will be having training with the Commander at dawn,” Titus said, closing the door to the nightblood rooms.

 

* * *

 

“Probably wasn’t a good idea now that I think about it,” Raven said while working on the audio device. Her head was killing her and her ears felt like they could explode, that and the fact she was throwing up every few minutes made her really regret taking Monty up on his offer.

 

“Hey, it was some fun. You needed it!” Octavia said, sat near Raven with an ice pack on the side of her face, where she fell onto the electric fence during early hours of the day.

 

“I really didn’t..” Raven said, trying to sound as though she meant it, even though they both knew that she really did need something other than wires and electric shocks.

 

“Alright, farty pants,” Octavia said, smirking at her.

 

“Why are you even here, shouldn’t you be out in the woods with Lincoln, having sex or something?” Raven asked quickly, trying to annoy her friend as much as possible.

 

“He’s gone out hunting with a group, so it’s no fun.” Octavia huffed.

 

“Alright, lover girl,” Raven said, jumping a bit when she got shocked by the device, as well as pulling faces, trying to make the device work. She was close to getting it to work, she could tell. It wouldn’t be long now before she would have it up and running. Knowing those Grounders, though, they probably would be able to withstand it, since they could withstand the electric fence that they had put up with little to no issue, which they found out the hard way when a Trikru warrior came through when he wasn’t allowed entrance to the camp.

 

Still, she did what she was ordered to do, especially since an incoming war and anything she could do she would, like always.

 

Ever since she landed she was needed to make something to kill people or do something for an upcoming war. This meant that she never really had time to spare, from radios to defeat Mount Weather, Bullets when they first landed and now audio devices capable of incapacitation! The list was endlessly being thrown at her, every time she thought she could take a break another thing was chucked her way and she needed to sort it out.

 

It occupied her at least, it was also better than being outside on the walls where all the grounders watch over your ever move. They had managed to see a few of them, they knew that they were watching camp, but it seemed like they weren’t meant to kill, otherwise several of the guards would be dead.

 

* * *

 

“Heda,” The messenger bowed, she must have been no older than 14. “I bring news from the Skaikru.”

 

“What is it, Sara?” Lexa asked impatiently.

 

“Klark is not at the camp, the scouts reported that she didn’t return to camp several days ago,” Sara said, gulping at the end of the sentence, ready to be scolded for the length of time the message took.

 

Instead, however, Lexa didn’t seem to thrash out at her but was contemplating the words she had heard.

 

“Where is she now?” She asked, intrigued as to why Clarke would leave her people.

“She went north… to Azgeda.” She said quietly, “The scouts couldn’t go further north without threatening war, but they know she crossed into their territory.”

 

Lexa was immediately sad and angry at the same time, why would Clarke be stupid enough to leave her people? Why was she giving herself to the Azgeda? So many questions flooded her mind, and it all came back to one idea, Azgeda with the Skaikru’s help would be able to overpower the other clans easily. Nia would definitely use this power against all who opposed her, as well as having the new legend of Wanheda to help her in the conquest all the other clans would join her. Most of the trikru warriors would stay loyal to the commander, but many would still flee to join other clans in order to survive.

 

The main point of what she was thinking was that Clarke wanted her dead, this is what she had done. In making that decision against the Mountain Men she had signed her death along with many innocents and warriors. She had made a grave mistake, maybe they should have killed all the Skaikru before anything, their strength was feared amongst most clans. Wanheda leading an army meant that she couldn’t lose.

 

Lexa needed to use the spys she has had inactive in the Azgeda territory to make sure that whatever they plotted would be able to be stopped straight away.

  
Maybe she should take out the Skaikru, maybe Clarke was going to kill Nia, who knew? Only Clarke knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed, will try to update twice tomorrow! There will be a slight jump between this chapter and the next, just to skip out the boring starting of training, you came here to see badass Clarke, not Clarke getting beaten.
> 
> :D - Have a great day guys!


	4. The Fire Inside Burns Bright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke gets starts her test, Lexa can't find Clarke.

**Chapter 4: The Fire Inside Burns Bright**

 

_ 4 weeks later… _

 

“Ste yuj, Clarke,” Karim said, they had been doing sparring all day and Clarke was getting much better every day. She was learning much faster than any other warriors he had trained, and he had trained some of the best warriors that they had. He knew that she would succeed as long as she didn’t anger Nia, and kept up the work she was doing.

 

She could already beat a lot of the Ice Nation warriors, but her strength was lacking and she needed to be able to fight for long times without tiring.

 

To make them stronger they had to do intense exercises, which Clarke hated. These involved going up and down the mountains in bare minimum clothing carrying bags of rocks for long periods of time.

 

She was definitely going to be a great warrior, she already was without any skill. With around 600 kills, she was definitely someone to be feared. All this attention however just upped the expectations, she couldn’t ever lose a battle against someone without losing the power of the Wanheda.

Without the power of Wanheda, Clarke would have to be a great warrior, otherwise, she would be slain down by Nia. Maybe Clarke could do it, maybe she couldn’t. All he could hope is that she did well once the testing began.

 

* * *

 

Clarke had just finished her last day of training, tomorrow was her test. She would be put through torture, tactic tests as well as strength tests. All seconds of high ranking officers had to go through this test to make sure that they were prepared for if their first died and they took their roll. The only bit that Clarke didn’t know is what her first’s role was. They were to be told once they had finished their tests.

 

She would make sure that she came at the top, she needed to be respected around the other seconds and you have to earn respect, so that was her plan. When she was going to go through torture, she wasn’t going to make a noise. She wasn’t going to wince, she would take it.

 

* * *

 

“Heda, there our spy has not seen Clarke the whole time he has been there, none of our other spies have seen her either. We must forget this absurd idea, she is one skaikru. She is no Wanheda.” Titus spoke, tried to persuade her to stop the spies from looking out for Clarke. He knew that there was too much at stake, if one of the spies were to be found then there would be outrage amongst the clans, all of them assuming they were being spied on as well.

 

“Fine, Titus,  inform the spies they are relieved of their job, make sure no-one hears about this,” Lexa spoke.

 

“If that is your wish, Heda.” He said, bowing as he exited the room to inform the messengers to send the order. He was happy that Lexa was seeing what was wrong, however, he still knew she wished to find her, the problem was it would cost too much.

 

* * *

 

“Come, Clarke,” Karim said, walking out into the courtyard. They hadn’t been allowed to be seen by the public the whole time she was there as they couldn’t know about Wanheda’s presence. All the guards were too afraid to defy Nia, they knew she would find out who did it, she had eyes and ears everywhere.

 

“The tests will begin two bells after dawn. As you know the first stage is what your physical resilience is, the rest of the test I can’t say to you. But, do know, you are an excellent warrior and I hope that you do well, good luck Clarke kom Azgeda, Wanheda.”

 

“Thank you, Karim, for everything. You have been a great first, I look forward to continuing to fight and train by your side.” Clarke said slowly, then the bells rang out throughout the city, two bells. Tests start, as she thought this she was grabbed from behind and pulled towards the dungeon, where they would begin their tests.

 

Each step felt horrible on her feet, the worn stone scrapped at her feet, most of her clothes had been removed. The chains around her wrists held her arms solidly in place and they hurt, even after the short amount of time they had been used for. The smell of dried blood, sickness and burnt flesh filled her nostrils as she reached the last step, the guards tightened their grip on her arms and she knew they could smell it as well, it was the most putrid smell you could think of. She had to try extremely hard just to not gag at how bad the place was. Dried blood smeared the floor, vomit in some corners. She couldn’t see into the cells, iron solitary doors stopped anyone seeing in our out, unless the guard opened the hole in the door, allowing food to be placed through without the chance of an attack.

 

She was dragged into the far cell, once inside she could see how plain it was. A simple hole as a toilet and some straw in one corner made into a bed shape. The main thing she noticed was that the floor had been washed, but the blood was still visible.

 

Several minutes passed, she sat on the floor, tracing the blood on the floor, it helped clear her mind, no matter how demonic it was. She already knew that once she was trained there would be no remnant of the girl that there was once before. She thought how similar it was right now on the ground to what it used to be like in the sky. In both cases, she was stuck in a cell, in this case however she would be able to get out.

 

Many hours later, the door opened, two guards entered. They both looked slightly scared seeing her with her back turned to them, the blood that hadn’t dried was smeared across her hands and she was playing with it, she turned and looked at them, smiled as deadly of a smile as possible.

 

She needed to be feared, respect was earned not given out. She stood up, the chains around her wrists making quite the noise as she stood.

 

One of the guards grabbed her wrists and the other grabbed her and moved her out the cell towards a small brown wooden door. She hadn’t noticed the door until now, it was next to the stairs that they had come down, and the walk down the hall to it was definitely scary. She assumed it would be the torture room, what else would it be?

 

She was correct in assuming it was a torture room, but it wasn’t how she imagined it. Chains connected to the wall stopped you from moving your wrists or ankles, as well as your neck. The wall was stained with blood, and the stone floor had red flow running in each crack.

 

The sight nearly made her vomit, but she held her composure. This wasn’t exactly what she had expected when she thought about the torture rooms, she didn’t know what she expected, just that this wasn’t it.

 

She was strapped to the wall, the metal bindings digging into her, the skin tingling under the cold metal. She still stood stoic as possible, as the torturer came over. She had one eye that had a slice down it, making one blind. The rest of her face was rather pretty, but she didn’t need to think about that. All she needed to think about was the chance at killing Lexa, that’s what had driven her this far. She had gained lots of muscle over the short time she was there already, she was improving in her skill extremely fast, purely out of hatred for Lexa. She had abandoned them, she had taken her innocence. She had made this version of Clarke, and she would pay for it.

 

She carried on thinking about all these things, not realizing that the torturer was asking her questions, Clarke was staring at her blankly, not showing any emotion and the torturer was nothing if surprised at how the sky girl was holding. He arms were already bleeding, but even as she cut her skin, she didn’t flinch. She didn’t try to stop it. She took it well, and at this moment, the torturer knew that she would be an excellent warrior. If they could take the pain without flinching, they could make great battle tactics, even if they had to get hurt to killed their opponent.

 

Three hours later, Clarke was still standing, her body drained from the blood loss. Her vision faded around the ages, but she kept still, imagining the feeling of stabbing a knife through Lexa’s heart, watching her as she died on the floor. The look of betrayal in Lexa’s eyes, revenge for what she had done. It was the only way, they always say don’t fight fire with fire. In some cases, a fire needs to get big enough to burn itself out.

 

She was still standing in her shackles, the guards came over and unbound her. Her body lurched forward a little, but she steadied herself and walked as confidently as possible. She probably looked as weak as she felt, but she didn’t care. She needed to overcome the pain, she needed to be stronger. If she was weak now, she didn’t want to be if it happened again, this was for learning after all, right?

 

Of course, they also needed to know if you would spill Nia’s secrets and considering she hadn’t opened her mouth, neither talking nor in pain, she, of course, wouldn’t.

 

She was brought back to the cell, where she was placed down, and the door was locked. She wondered how the others were doing when she could hear a faint cry of pain. They must have taken the next person as Clarke was leaving, and Clarke didn’t notice. Just like she didn’t notice the pain she was in, just like she didn’t notice she knew no-one in Azgeda, that she was alone.

  
She couldn’t think straight, she needed rest. Even though it was around midday her body craved to lie down and sleep, she needed to heal. She wondered if they had made them deep enough to scar or not, she wouldn’t mind. It would remind her of what she had done, and after all the days without the visions taunting her, she often forgot who she was. She was the mass murderer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late upload, I will try to get another one out tomorrow, no promises! I have a life, and writing 2,000 words as quick as it is to read does take at least 1.5 hours for me to write, check over then make sure I like it. This one was spread over three days, however, and I'm sorry for the late uploading. I have been starting another fic, which is completely unrelated to this one but I hope will turn out pretty cool, however you didn't come her to read me advertise. Sorry again,
> 
> Have a great day,  
> Fries :D


	5. On The Knife Edge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke continues her tests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's really late, I've been busy. Gonna try and write another one for tonight and get that out soon.

**_Chapter 5: On The Knife Edge_ **

 

The next stage of the testing was all about battle tactics, they were all given scenarios that they had to work out.

 

For Clarke, she had to work out how to control some exiled warriors that had crossed the borders. She decided on sending a small party of warriors down to the southern border to stop them from attacking villages, as well as informing all the villages that they should be on the lookout for the exiled warriors, and if they were to be found they would have their family rewarded with food.

 

What they didn’t know, however, was that these ‘fake’ scenarios were real. Their order would be sent to the army and they would have to do their bidding, even if Nia didn’t like the order, she would have it be done.

 

If the end result was bad, they would most likely be killed, they didn’t know. All of them hoping not to find out the consequence of failing their queen.   
  


* * *

 

 

“Why hasn’t she announced the death of Wanheda, we all know she wants her power,” Lexa said to no-one in particular.

 

“It is possible that Wanheda could bow to the qu-”

 

“No! It isn’t, Clarke wouldn’t be stupid enough to ally with the Azgeda.” She cut Titus off, she knew that it was a possibility. She just didn’t want to think about it. The Azgeda with Skaikru help and Wanheda, they would be able to persuade a few other clans to join them as well and the Trikru and allies would stand no chance.

 

Everyone knew the story of Clarke, the legendary Wanheda. Having killed hundreds of gona at the dropship and the destruction of the mountain.

 

Each story was different but had one thing in common. In every one, Clarke was a legendary fighter. She never got injured and always killed everyone who stood in her way, with no mercy or regret.

 

Every child feared that their parent may one day face Wanheda, but also hoped that they would fight alongside of her, as she was the commander of death. That meant that none of her people ever died.

 

There are tales and songs about her, how she protects her own. And also those of bloody battles and scary stories of her silent killing.

 

Everyone feared Clarke, Wanheda.

 

* * *

 

“Come Chancellor,” Kane said, motioning toward the front of Arkadia. Many features had been added during the time the Chancellor had been away at Mount Weather.

 

They had been ferrying supplies back from Mount Weather, as well as removing the bodies.

She could see what Clarke had done, and it hurt her to know what her child bears.

 

Everyone knows that she’s dead, but no-one would confront Abby about it, many of them knowing how hard it is to lose someone. Abby didn’t let it show, though, she continued on as Chancellor first, Abby second. It was one of the few ways she could escape fearing about Clarke, only because she worried for everyone.

 

This did keep her mind occupied as well, otherwise, she would have gone insane at all the different things they could have done to keep her with them. She had thought about it, what if Bellamy had told her straight away.

 

They only found out a few hours later as everyone was too busy with the reunion to notice that Clarke was nowhere to be found. The only person happy about that was Jasper, and that was the only thing happy about him.

 

Most of the time now her stumbles around with a bottle of alcohol with him. He gets drunk most nights and they have had to lock him up several times. This meant that he got angry all the time. Even Monty, the most caring person in the world, wanted nothing to do with him.

 

Jasper once tried to hurt Monty for helping Clarke with the killing, talking about how it was all his fault and that all their friends are safe, but not his friends.

 

“It’s coming along nicely isn’t it,” Abby spoke, taking her mind off of the people she didn’t need to think about at that moment.

 

“Bellamy has done well, I’m proud of how far he has come,” Kane said, laughing when some children came running by and bumping into him, before running off to go play.

 

“Do you really think the grounders will attack? We’ve seen their scouts for weeks now, they never seem to move.” Abby asked.

 

“Hm, they are probably expecting us to attack, they will expect us to be angry and lash out at them.” Kane said cooly “So, no. I don’t.”

 

“Aren’t you angry at them?” Abby asked, confused as to why Kane is speaking so calmly about their betrayal, the betrayal which lost her Clarke.

 

“Yes, I am, they caused much more than they know. But, I know why they did it, wouldn’t you have done the same thing? She protected her people, maybe at the cost of another.” Kane spoke, trying to convince Abby that they would have done the same.

 

“Clarke, step forward please.” One of Nia’s Generals spoke, looking down at the parchment he held. The parchment contained the answer to Clarke’s question. ‘Would it have worked?’

 

“You did well, head to the pits for the next step of the test.” The general said.

 

Clarke was pleased with this news, she didn’t let it show as she nodded then left the room. She expecting fighting to be next since it would be in the pits.

 

Once she arrived she saw some of the other seconds who had already arrived before her. Before long all except one of the seconds were there, everyone waited for her to arrive, expecting her to be coming soon.

 

A few minutes later Nia walked out with the head of the second in her hands, she dropped the head in front of the other seconds, who were in a horseshoe shape around one of the pit fighting trainers.

 

“Let this be an encouragement to you, do not fail!” She said, then walking off to go outside the pits and sitting on the large chair poised in the best position to watch the fighting.

 

“100 Pushups, now!” the trainer screamed out, all the seconds starting on their training.

 

* * *

 

_ Three hours of training… _

 

She could tell many of the were wavering, some almost slipping out of consciousness as they continued their exercises. No matter how cold it was, the sun bearing on their hot skin was making all of them sweat a lot.

 

They were being forced to keep going otherwise they would be ‘removed’ from the training, which two other seconds had already been. Their heads lying next to each other, as well as the other, failed second.

 

The thought of killing Lexa was still hot on her mind, her driving force. It kept her at the front of the group, it kept her pushing, it kept her alive.

 

Maybe she should thank Lexa for the betrayal before she killed her, the new strength that Lexa had given her made her feel unstoppable. She had, however, recently found that she was ‘Wanheda’ due to some of the seconds talking to her about it. It made her feel great to be respected before she came here, the stories she heard were all over exaggerated, but she wouldn’t stop them.

 

Once they had finished running they all stood in line again, expecting to be allowed to return to their quarters for the night. Yet again, however, they were wrong.

 

Six guards came out, five carrying a spare set of armor each, and the sixth taking in an assortment of weapons.

 

The realization hit her, they were going to fight.

 

“You will be fighting until you give up.” The trainer said. “Take one or two weapons, no more.” He commanded, pointing toward the rack of weapons being carried in over the sand.

 

Clarke saw what she wanted, two daggers. She had been trained in an assortment of weapons, but daggers were her favorite. She used her agility to get around people and then strike. She also enjoyed the short sword, it allowed for great movement, without lowering too much range.

 

She grabbed the two daggers and grabbed her armor from the guard, clipping it all on. She knew the armor wasn’t to stop them dying, it was to weigh them down and wear them out. That’s what the training was for, at the end of a battle you still need to be able to fight, otherwise you’ll die.

 

She stepped back into line after collecting everything she needed, closely followed by everyone else who all fell into line silently.

 

The guards walked off, taking the rest of the weapons away.

 

The trainer looked around the seconds, seeing who would test each other the most. “Clarke, you will fight Maximus” He stated, stepping away from the two and the other seconds doing the same.

  
“Remember the rules, if you give up you lose. If you die, you lose.” He spoke as they all edged to the back of the arena.

 

Clarke stepped away from Max, looking at him. He was a big build with lots of muscle, about 5 inches taller than Clarke. He had a cruel smile on his face while he spun a two-handed ax around in his hands. Clarke, having only daggers needed to dodge his blows then look where he left open and strike there. The big problem was his strength if she got hit she would be dead.

 

She kept her eyes on him the whole time, watching as he spun the ax over and over. He took a step towards Clarke, this allowed her to see his stance, his right foot forward. She needed to dodge to the right and slice his left leg, then he would drop.

 

Before she could continue analyzing her opponent, he charged, swinging his ax down where Clarke was. The only noise was a soft thud as it hit the sand where Clarke once was, Clarke took this opportunity to slide down for a slice his leg, but was swatted away with his fist going into her stomach, winding her. He took another swing, this time horizontally and Clarke ducked under, springing up just after and slicing a gash into his right forearm, making him hiss violently and swing again.

 

She saw the swing coming and dodged, but a foot hit her just after she had rolled, sending her down on the floor again. She quickly stood up, spinning her dagger in her hand.

 

She decided to take a risk, she ran at him, his ax coming straight at her, but she slid under it just in time. She flipped her two daggers to face upwards and sliced both of his arms, she then sliced them in another place again. His ax dropped to the floor as his arms bled violently. He fell to the floor, passing out from the blood loss.

 

Clarke had won, getting punched and kicked, whilst he had five gashes across his arms.

 

Clarke was anticipating every movement he did, he would look at her in the eyes, then where he would aim, that is how she won. Otherwise, she would have been sliced in half, she was grateful for her firsts teaching. Then again, without her, she wouldn’t have had to do it anyway.

 

“Clarke wins,” The trainer saying harshly “Sahmantha, you fight Joel.” the trainer said, looking back at Clarke then looking at the next fight.

 

Maximus had been dragged out of the pits and the blood staining the sand showed where he went. The knew that he wouldn’t be seen again, he lost and he would pay for it.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it, not good with making up Ice Nation names, so don't judge them! I don't know where they came from though, so I hope they're okay.
> 
> Have a great day,  
> \- Fries :D


	6. Weakness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke continues testing. Lexa tries to get Sky people in the coalition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very good at getting stuff out when I say. 1 day turned into a week a bit quick...
> 
> Sorry :P

**Chapter 6: Weakness**

“Weakness will not be tolerated.” The trainer said.

They had all finished their fights. Three seconds were left. Herself, Sahmantha and Kiyhl. She hoped they wouldn’t continue to fight, she had fought first but she was still tired. They had done plenty of exercise for one day as well as condemning one of the other seconds for death.

“The weak will be removed. We are Azgeda, we must be strong!” He said he was trying to put fear into the seconds to try and push them to be better.

“Now, you must rest. Tomorrow will be the final stage of testing. Do not fail your kwin.” He said, dismissing them. The seconds moved out in a line, first heading for the armory to put away their weapons and put away their armor.

Clarke pushed the door of the armory open, stretching her arms hurt but she knew she couldn’t show it. ‘Weakness will not be tolerated’ reverberated through her brain.

Upon entering she started taking the armor off, a leather sheet would describe it better. It fit uncomfortably around her, for obvious reasons.

She places both of the daggers into the weapon crate. She thought about washing them but saw that many others had blood inside the crate and just placed them in theirs.

She was about to exit the armory, it was a dark room that was on the walls of the arena. It allowed for fighters to prepare before going out into the arena, but it was still small. It had few things in there and it stunk of sweat.

As she was a foot away from exiting she heard her name being called out.

“Clarke,” Nia said, trying to sound kind but she could tell the cold in her voice. In her experience she seemed to be trying to be kind to Clarke over the other seconds, she could tell how much it strained her to be kind to a second.

“You fought well,” she said as she walked over gracefully. “I am impressed, your first will be too. Rest well and be ready for tomorrow.” She said, walking off after that.

Clarke was confused by the kindness showed by Nia, she imagined she had greater plans for Clarke. She didn’t mind, though, she had joined Nia’s army after all. Maybe she should be loyal to Nia, she managed to take the visions away.

Other than a few nights she had been too tired to see the visions, the day out working and fighting also made her concentrate. They didn’t torment her, she didn’t even feel them watching her.

Clarke walked out into the cool air of the North. She forgot how hot it was inside the armory until she stood out and the wind hit her. The sweat on her forehead feeling sticky and her arms feeling heavy, she struggled to move out towards the palace.

She slowly moved towards the gate, the arena was in a cut off section of the city. No citizens were allowed around there and it was guard housing. This allowed her to come into the city around this area, the arena was only open when there were large events happening.

As she walked up the steps towards the palace it allowed her to see the beauty of the city, she would love to live there. The cold of the area made everywhere inside feel nice and warm. It made it feel like home.

She continued up the stairs, past the guards at the main entrance. She continued through the courtyard and into the guest housing section of the palace. Inside the palace was as beautiful as always and she walked down to her room. She noticed the shadow from underneath the door before she went in. She prepared herself, was this a part of the test? She questioned herself. She had no weapons, she prepared her fists and opened the door quickly.

Upon entering she realized it was just her first, Karim.

“You scared me” Clarke stated, she felt at ease around her first. He was a kind man, no older than 30. He was secretive though and Clarke knew nothing about him, he never asked her about her life, though. She imagined he knew about the mountain, the dropship, and her story. He never asked questions, he only pushed her and she was thankful for that. She hated her past, she wanted revenge, she wanted blood.

She knew that she didn’t have to return to the Skaikru, but she would do at some point. Did her Mother deserve to know of her living? Maybe they were already dead, it wouldn’t surprise her. Lexa wasn’t who she thought she was. Now the mountain was down, they were just invaders with no use. They were expendable, just like she was. Why would Lexa care, she killed Clarke inside. 

All she needed to do was kill her outside.

The thought of killing Lexa made her inside toil. She would love to kill her but she also wanted her to understand what she had made. She wanted to kill Lexa in a slow painful way, killing those close to her. She wanted revenge.

Karim could tell that Clarke was thinking about something. He didn’t know what it was that she thought of, but when she did her face turned into some smile that made him scared. It was a genuine smile, but not one of happines. The smile of a torturer enjoying slicing a blade down you, the smile a man gives to someone before they put a sword through them on the battlefield.

He would tell her about who he was eventually, but Clarke needed to prepare for the next test. The only reason he was there was to talk to Clarke about it, it as the last stage and only one of the seconds would make it. He knew that Clarke could make it, but it was a question of if she would push herself enough. It was a grueling series of tasks.

The first task would be about loyalty, they had to learn to kill without question. They couldn’t have people being disloyal to Nia in high places.

He could remember his tasks, starting out at killing a criminal who stole bread. The man stood there shivering under the stare he gave the man.

The noise of Nia talking about his crimes, the blade that was given to him. The man’s voice pleading, the sound of the gurgle of blood.

But this wasn’t about what he had done, but what Clarke was going to do.

“Clarke,” he said,”I am sorry for scaring you. I’m here to prepare you for tomorrow. I cannot tell you what it is you will do, even I don’t know. The only thing I can say is, don’t question Nia. Do as she asks, do it as best as you can and you will survive.” He said, sounding sad. He saw what happened to the first second that stepped up, he asked why the man wouldn’t be charged normally. The second’s head was on the pike by the time he had stepped up to take the life.

“Rest well Clarke, you will need it,” Karim said, leaving the room quickly.

* * *

“Heda,” Titus said, as he bowed and entered the throne room.

“What is it, Titus?” Lexa said, sat atop her throne in her armor, she was awaiting the arrival of the Skaikru. She wished to speak with them about what their plans were for the winter as well as trying to convince them to join the coalition. She wanted some of their tech. She had seen how powerful it was in the battle. She didn’t want guns, she wanted radios, electricity as well as some of their medicine. She had seen how they could bring reapers back, she was in awe at their ability with tech, but they were simple minded and weak. They were stubborn as well, even though that definitely helped her like Clarke.

Even the thought of Clarke made her eyes feel heavy, she had never admitted to anyone, but she definitely liked the sky girl. Maybe too much, and that is why she was weak. But Clarke was most likely dead by the hand of Nia, much like Costia.

“The Skaikru have arrived, however, they won’t get rid of their weapons.” Titus spat, as though the sky people had offended him by being alive.

Lexa sighed, she knew this would happen. She couldn’t blame them, though, it would be easy to rid the Skaikru if their leaders were dead. If she attacked them when they were armed she could be killed and there could also be the chance for them to escape.

She will not attack them, but she doubts they can say the same. If she wanted them dead, she would have done that already.

“Allow them one weapon. Tell them if it is drawn or used. They will be killed” Lexa said, waving Titus off towards the sky people.

After waiting a small amount of time spinning the knife around in her hand, she heard the door open, Titus walked through. Followed closely by Abby, then Kane and someone that Lexa didn’t know, but recognized from the mountain attack.

“The other Sky Crew wouldn’t remove their weapons, so they are waiting outside of the city,” Titus said.

  
“Very well,” Lexa said, getting ready to go to business, she could see the guard was on edge, glancing around. Kane seemed very content, what he saw of the city changed his opinion of them a lot.

“I’ll get straight to the point, I want you to join the coalition. It would benefit everyone, you will not be able to survive the winter. You haven’t grown enough to survive the winter, you will starve and freeze. You will receive support from the coalition. You will be invited to Polis and all your people will be welcome. The other clans wouldn’t dare attack you as they would be attacking me. You will be allowed to trade with Polis as well as private trade agreements in other clans.” Lexa said, watching as Abby seemed to be angered by her comments and Kane was trying to soothe her.

“We’ll need time to think about it.” Kane said,” Thank you, Commander.” Leaving swiftly with Abby and their guard in tow.

She knew Abby wouldn’t take it well but was hoping for someone to see what she was doing would benefit them all. No doubt Abby believed the facts as an insult to herself and her people. But facts were right, they would freeze and starve. They don’t have wood for fires and they have only the food they get from hunting. The birds and animals would go away like they do every winter. The only things that stayed were paunas and bears. Both of which were rare. Sometimes other winter-time animals came around but they would most likely be hunted out straight away by villages on low food supply.

No matter what the Sky people would die. Few may survive but they would suffer the consequence of the cold. Bone freeze is what her people called it. Sometimes it was bad than other times, but in all cases, the skin swells and causes much pain to the person. Sometimes their skin goes black and never comes back, other times it is a short-term pain with no permanent damage.

She was just hoping that Kane would explain that what she was doing would help them all. She hadn’t said what she wanted in return and just assumed they knew, she had taken interest in their tech when they attacked the mountain. She wouldn’t let it show but she was definitely impressed by the intelligence of the sky people, yet they never seemed to use it for anything useful. It was all petty arguments and fights

Except for Clarke, she was smart. She used it to take down the mountain, to order her people. To kill her people.

She wished she could have Clarke next to her if only she could have had a way of getting her people out and safe as well as having Clarke next to her. Maybe she should have listened to Clarke when she said they could get in.

Maybe they could have… No! She needed to stop thinking about what she could have changed, she needed to work with the sky people. Clarke would have wanted an alliance like this before the mountain incident.

Maybe in her next life, she could meet Clarke. Maybe she could get Clarke to forgive her, then they may owe nothing more to their people.

  
Maybe she could have her very own Sky Princess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed. I will TRY to get some more out over this week. This one was quite good to write, I enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoyed reading. Tell me what you liked and would like to see in the plot! I have no idea how this will turn out, I'm kinda bad at writing so I'm just going as I go.
> 
> Anyway,
> 
> I hope you have/had a great day,  
> Fries! :D


	7. A New Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke attacks a camp, Abby is angry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy, tried to get this one out as soon as possible after the recently weekly updates!

**Chapter 7: A New Darkness**

 

The blade was passed into her hand, she didn’t know what she needed to do, but she would do it. She knew that it would most likely involve taking a life, she had taken many. This time however, when the man was knelt before Nia and his shivering body was in front of her with eyes pleading, it felt like her first kill. This kill had no reasoning.

 

She killed to protect, she killed to save. She didn’t want to kill the man but knew that if she didn’t he would probably have a worse death from Nia’s hand. She had seen her ruthlessness a few times and could see why the people of Azgeda feared her.

 

Clarke was placed to the left side of the throne, next to Nia who was seated at the throne, sat royalty. None of the other seconds were there, but she imagined they had already done this or had yet to.

 

“Kill him.” Nia whispered in a deadly tone that make Clarke shiver. Each footstep towards the man echoing around the walls of the throne room, the man on his knees before the throne.

 

She didn’t question, Karim had told her that. She was to do as she was told, if you question you would die. She had no doubt that one of the seconds would die in this test.

 

She stopped in front of the man, he must have been many years old, his beard starting to grow gray and his body looked fragile. She wouldn’t be surprised if the man would die that Winter anyway. Sweat coated his forehead and he shook slightly.

 

Clarke spun the knife in her hand, the blade pointed horizontally toward the man. One quick slice with the dagger and his hands clawed at his throat and his eyes slowly darkened, until all life had left them.

 

Clarke turned, facing Nia with an impassive face no matter how much she wanted to get out of here, leave Azgeda and go back to her mother and hide in her arms, she needed to do this. She needed to learn, maybe she could teach the other members of the 100 how to fight, maybe they would help her. She had no doubt that they would want revenge on the commander.

 

She caused Clarke to leave, she imagined her friends would be angry at her if she returned. If she could point the anger towards the commander, maybe just maybe she could get them to help her.

 

It would be perfect.

 

She moved towards Nia slowly, not sure on what to do. She decided to drop to one knee, presenting the knife for Nia to take. This seemed to please Nia, when she stood up the smile that was pressed on Nia’s face left her quickly and she returned to the classic grounder stoic face.

 

She was dismissed and once Clarke left the throne room she let out a breath she didn’t know that she was holding. Her hands were shaking a bit. That kill felt so personal, it was in no way the same as the kills she had made at all other times. Killing 300 grounders in one second was much less personal that sliding a knife across the neck of an elderly while he bowed towards their queen.

 

She needed to get used to it after all, she needed to do that to Lexa. She wanted it to be personal. Then again, if she could barely get herself to kill a stranger, how could she kill Lexa?

 

Doubt flooded her mind, but she flushed it away. She knew what must be done. _Blood must have blood_.

 

* * *

 

 

“Abby!” Kane shouted from the other end of the hallway, following after her, he was following after she had stormed out of the council room at hearing people speak badly about her daughter.

 

She wanted to rid many of the Farm Station people from Arcadia, their views against the grounders were even worse than theirs. She had no doubt that they would kill any grounders they saw, if they were there for peace or not it wouldn’t matter.

 

They were speaking ill about Clarke and her stupidity of agreeing to grounder negotiations, the ring leader being Pike who was gaining support rapidly. Many people were against him but everyone at Farm Station looked at him like he was a God. His views were too much violence, especially since he was an ‘Earth Skills’ teacher.

 

He was probably angry because everything he taught about the ark inhabitants being the last surviving humans was wrong. Most of the things he taught were wrong. The plants he spoke of were never seen. The animals were different, even the landscape. No-one told them ‘When you get down watch out for mutant snakes in the rivers. Man-Eating drug abused Grounders and a large group of savages.’

 

She couldn’t take their chatter any longer, if she didn’t know of better judgement she could have killed Pike right there. With his support however, people would start an uprising if he died. That was something they definitely couldn't handle since a lot of the guard was on his side.

 

She even thought she heard Bellamy and him talking about setting up patrols to charge villages. She thought Bellamy was the one who understood the grounders the most. Especially since his sister was basically one of them. Abby was almost proud of what Octavia had done. The girl that lived under the floor, to the prisoner, to the ‘first on the ground’ to a grounder. She was definitely impressed.

 

The thing which made her the most angry was how Lincoln was treated, not only had he helped them a lot in teachings and healings. He was also a trusted guard member, yet most of the guard shoved him around. She was surprised that he hadn’t attacked one of them yet.

 

“Abby, please.” Kane said, catching up to Abby and snapping her back to reality. “You need to come back, as the Chan-”

 

“The Chancellor isn’t available right now!” Abby cut him off from talking, he knew that she was in pain over Clarke but he couldn’t stand idle. He was definitely against Pike’s opinions, and he definitely hated him, but they all needed to put aside hatred for their people.

 

Abby stormed off down towards the Chancellor quarters, as much as Kane hated it he couldn’t help but stare at the way Abby's hips moved as she stormed off. He snapped out of it, _now is not the time_ , he thought.

 

Abby slammed the door behind her, contemplating the last couple of days. After they had found Farm Station the whole of Arkadia had become extremely anti-grounder with Pike’s preaches.

 

They were going to join the coalition a few days ago and now the camp is against it. No matter how much she tries to tell Pike that they couldn’t survive Winter he was too stubborn to accept it. Pike saying that they could survive anything and that the Commander was just trying to use them and that furs and blankets wasn’t worth radios.

 

She understood where he was coming from, but the amount that furs and blankets would help them was crazy. Yes, they had a few structures up at the moment it isn’t enough to handle everyone and the tents that they all had wouldn’t be thick enough to keep out the cold of the winter. They already had to start  putting up campfires around at night to keep people warm. People spoke about using the Ark as a good way to heat up but with the heating system fried and no repairs able to be done at that time it didn’t look promising. If worst came to worst they could hold up in there, it would be warmer than outside but it would still be very cold and they would still need to go outside often.

 

She needed to formulate a plan, she needed Clarke. She was the one who always worked things out down on the ground and now she was gone Abby could see how much she held together. She was proud of her daughter, it was too bad that she was most likely on the floor in the woods, frozen or maybe dehydrated.

 

Maybe she was alive, she could hold onto that to push her through. Maybe Clarke would be back.

 

* * *

 

_ 1 month later… _

 

Clarke was out practising with her first, she now knew what her first had trained her in. Karim was an assassin and as much as that scared Clarke, it also intrigued her. She had been learning about moving silently blending in with your background, out in the wild or in rooms.

 

Clarke was making excellent progress and Karim was very proud of how well Clarke had been doing, she was definitely the perfect candidate for an assassin as she was agile, and she was surprisingly graceful. At the start, she had been anything but, now she was slowly learning how to become much more graceful in her movements and she could traverse lands without leaving trails as well as being well hidden in the wild.

 

They were currently headed south and she was wrapped up tightly. She had her light armor around her body, her hair a different colour from the berries they had used to disguise herself when she was outside the palace. It had seemed to worked surprisingly well, she didn’t realize how many people recognized her by her hair color and not what her face looked like.

 

Considering there were very few red haired people on the Ark, the amount of them on the ground greatly outweighed the number of blondes. Especially her hair color, the gold in the sun made her unique on the ground. People had several nicknames, Princess of the Sky to Commander of Death. When she had the red hair tainted by berries, she was just a trader.

 

She had been training harshly recently. They were moving south so that they could practice in the more dense forest regions. They weren’t technically allowed to practice in the Trikru territory, but as far as anyone knew she was a poor trader.

 

When you’re in Azgeda they don’t seem to care about technicalities.

 

She had come a long way, though, and she did have a contract kill she needed to do. They had to take out a group of bandits on the border of the Azgeda-Trikru lands. They had already planned out what they would do, they just had to make sure the terrain there was good enough for their plan.

 

Soon enough, they reached the location where the bandits were supposed to be, and they commenced their attack under the cover of darkness, all of the bandits were awake, but too busy drinking to take in their surroundings well enough. All of the bandits would be exiled warriors or at least trained in the wielding of a sword so they were to expect some fighting back.

 

Clarke was on the cliff face, watching the bandits, they were all getting themselves drunk and she could hear some moaning from one of the nearby tents, she knew they would have to die and hoped they would be done by the time she made it there to kill them.

 

Karim was near to her and they nodded to each other, they climbed down the cliff edge carefully and dropped to the floor silently. The quickly brought out their daggers and got ready to fight, Clarke entered the tent with the fun, noises coming from it. She slipped in during the dark, she could make out three figures around one woman who was on the bed.

She snuck up behind them slicing two of them, slicing the third man just as the other two dropped. She was about to stab the woman but, she, however, seemed to be glad that it all stopped, she soon realized that the woman didn’t wear the clothes that the other bandits wore, she was a villager from a nearby village. She vaguely remembers being ordered to return all villagers to their homes.

 

“Mochof _._ ” The woman said in a calmly voice, she was a beautiful young woman and the smell in the room didn’t help her own needs much more, she hadn’t had any chance to get someone else or herself to please her for a long while and the smell as well as the beautiful woman was not helping.

 

She ordered the woman to stay in the tent and that she would come back for her. She left the tent quickly.

 

The sound of a body hitting the floor brought her to attention, she thought that she had heard it from the opposite end of them camp, she assumed it would be Karim taking out some of the bandits.

 

She spun the dagger in her hand, ready to stab anything that jumped out at her, she peered around one of the tents and looked around, seeing several and luckily, none of them seemed to notice her. She slipped into the treeline, blending in how her first had taught her to do, there were six bandits with weapons and two without who seemed to be drinking heavily. She imagined many more bandits were in their tents, it was a while after midnight, they were going to be sleeping well.

 

She could see Karim slowly moving around one of the tents, she had been taught to see things others couldn’t. Foiling assassination attempts was surprisingly a common thing for people like her.

 

Karim was loyal to Nia but also took out contract killing. High ranking officers could ask to dispose of people, sometimes people from other clans but it was normally Azgeda low ranking officers who had different views from Nia.

 

She knew Karim would be moving around to the back to kill the sleeping bandits, they couldn’t risk them waking up. Even if they were hungover or drunk. If too many of them attacked they would most likely lose the battle.

 

She knew that this meant she would have to attack the guarding bandits. She could take two on at a time at most, any more and she would be dead for certain.

 

She hadn’t been training for long, but she could beat two Azgeda warriors to the ground without getting hit, any more than that however and she would get taken down.

 

She grabbed her second knife out her boot, in case she needed to throw a knife. She didn’t enjoy fighting with two weapons, she found it was much too difficult for her and she found one knife much more effective. She could throw a knife well though, and this meant having a second knife tucked away ready to throw was excellent. Not only that but with having poison on the end meant that even the smallest cuts could be fatal without medication quickly.

 

She moved towards the first guard who was facing away from her, he was quite close and she could kill him quickly and quietly.

 

She approached with great care, being as silent as the night. She put a hand around his mouth and put a knife across his neck in a second. Clarke caught the man before he could hit the floor to loudly and placed him down, not because she didn’t want to be offending to his spirit. She just didn’t want to alert anyone.

 

She could see two guards talking with one another and a set of three guards near each other. 

 

Yet again she slipped silently around, using the shadows and background to cover her advances. She slit the next pairs throats quickly using both her knives.

 

She wiped the blood off both her weapons onto her hand. She wiped the blood across her face in a kind of war paint, except this was the Wanheda war paint.

 

She gripped her knife in fear, three opponents against herself. She could throw a knife at one and slice at the other two quickly, and alert the unarmed warriors. Or, she could risk death and try and slice two quickly and silence the other.

 

She aimed one of the knives at the back of one of their necks, she let the knife fly and it embedded perfectly. As the knife hit the man with a loud squelch the other two looked around to find Clarke one foot away running at them, with a knife in hand. She jumped up, kicking one of their swords away with the metal of her snow boots.

 

As she did this, the other guard took a swipe at her with his sword, it was a weak attack and she dodged it easily. She dived in and out of battle stabbing and cutting then escaping before any harm could be done to her. It wasn’t an honorable tactic, but these were bandits and they had no honor

 

She easily took both of them down, killing them quickly and cleanly. One of the guards landed a kick on her knee, but that was all she had to show in terms of wounds from the battle.

 

The snow boots the bandit had on helped to hurt Clarke, but she kept pushing. She knew it would bruise and she would struggle to walk, but she would make do.

 

She quickly killed the two unarmed bandits, they were too busy drinking to have noticed they guards dying. They didn’t even notice when Clarke walked up to them, too busy talking about the women they had taken from local.

 

They were vile beings, taking people and abusing them like they had done. Then again, she was just as bad for killing them. Maybe she was a murderer. She had come to accept that, but she killed for reason. All people she killed were to stop further death. From stopping their friends dying in Mount Weather, killing Finn to stop his painful death, or burning trikru members to save herself. She killed to stay alive. It was what the ground was all the time, kill or be killed.

 

She looked inside several tents, finding many women who were being raped and abused. She killed all of the bandits, gathering up as many of the women as possible. She didn’t speak, she couldn’t give up who she was by her voice. She didn’t know if people would recognize her, but she wouldn’t let it slide. She made commands with her hands, pointing to where she wanted them.

 

She waited for Karim, knowing he would be out into the clearing of the camp before long. Clarke sat down, looking at some of the food the bandits had brought in for their feasts and drinking. The women were all looking around awkwardly, probably scared of who Clarke was, or maybe anxious to get home to their lovers.

 

She wished she could say the same. She hated home, and she was loving every second of being away. The freedom she had as Nia’s killer was great. She had slowly started to lose a grip on reality. She had been beaten once when she didn’t obey Nia and her scars hurt just thinking about it. She had been lucky Nia wanted Clarke to bow before her, otherwise, she would be dead.

 

She had heard the whispers of the people talking off the vanishing princess. Some people even believed she had gone to the land of the spirits to kill the people she killed in their past life. Many thought she could go between this world and the next easily.

 

She was surprised so many guards had kept their mouths shut. She thought that by now someone would have found her, realized over her disguise. Their lover speaking of seeing her. Anything, but no. Wanheda had disappeared.

 

She chuckled to herself demonically about herself, people had no idea who she was. To them she was a weak trader.

 

The women around her visibly stiffened at her laughing, she smiled at them and it didn’t exactly help how she intended it to. As much as she wanted to calm them, she couldn’t. Her smile looked more like a smile of death than anything.

 

Before long, Karim came over. He spoke to the women in rapid trigedasleng. She could pick most of it up, but not everything. It came along the lines of ‘Thank Nia for her services’ and telling them to follow them to the closest village.

 

The women scurried along behind Karim and herself, her leg was throbbing in pain and knew that the cold wouldn’t help it. She let that go to the back of her mind though, she needed to carry on, she needed to be strong.

 

They arrived at the village after an hour or so of walking, the women thanking Karim and herself. She nodded at them then started heading towards the West to the nearest City to send word to Nia.

 

They were moving at a terribly slow pace through the snow, the wind had picked up and it was blowing a lot of snow towards them and stopping them from seeing far.

 

Karim spoke about being around this area and knowing of a place they would be able to stay in to wait the storm out, Clarke gladly agreed but tried not to show it on her face, even though it was covered.

 

Clarke could see the cave as they approached it, she had her weapon drawn, like Karim as they didn’t know if a bear had inhabited it since his last visit this far south. They entered the cave, not encountering any troubles. She sheathed her dagger. And set about making a fire. She gathered some rocks, placing them in and ring around some small stick to use as kindling.

 

She grabbed a smaller stick and some dried leaves and started rubbing her hands up and down the stick.

 

In five minutes or less, the fire had started it was warming her up, her fingers tingling from the warmth of the fire.

 

At this point she felt content with her life for the first time in a while, the voices gone, the fear of death gone. She felt safe, she felt happy.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed, I really liked writing this one, it was longer than my normal 2,000 words. (It was almost double :o)  
> If you have any suggestions for the storyline write it in the comments, I have a vague idea of the story, don't worry. At the end will be Clexa, so wait! But, anything in between now and then is completely open for changing. The original plan for this chapter was to be Clark meeting Ontari, but look how that went :/
> 
>  
> 
> Anyways, hope you have/had a great day,  
> Fries :D


	8. Monim kom Sylva

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.. Where do I begin? I've been away for a short (read: long) time, I've been busy with things and, dare I say it, I almost, only almost, forgot about this.
> 
> Along with that, I never really felt like writing it, until recently. A fiction I was really enjoying, ended, but no the story no, it just hadn't been updated for a long while, and It reminded me of this story, and it made me feel bad, because if someone likes it, if that's possible, then, I've done the exact same thing.
> 
> So, that's the story, now, if you're new, you'll have no clue what I'm on about, so, go and jump into the story :P

**Chapter 8: Monim Kom Sylva**

 

Clarke awoke to the sound of a fire crackling lightly, she opened her eyes slowly, the reflection off the snow blinding her for while.

 

Once her eyes had adjusted, she could see that Karim had made a fire, and he was cooking some meat over it.

 

She slowly sat up, making sure that Karim noticed she was awake and rubbed her eyes. It looked about midnight, she had probably slept a couple hours in the cave, they needed to head out before Nia sent for them, and then she wouldn’t be happy.

 

Clarke would be lying if she said that Nia didn’t scare her, she was definitely a force to be reckoned with if she was unhappy with what you had done.

 

She could smell the meat cooking, and it smelled great, it expelled all prior thoughts. She picked herself up from the floor, stretching her back slightly from lying on the misshapen stone floor.

 

She picked up her daggers, one hidden on either hip and one in each boot. She pulled her sheath of her short sword over her shoulder and slipped it on, she covered it with furs so that she could keep her trade look. She tightened up her boots, ready for the trek that was sure to follow, and walked over to the fire.

 

Karim offered her a piece of meat, she took it and started eating it silently, thinking about all the recent events, she enjoyed her life now. She had no responsibility of a leader, it was calming, she didn’t have the pressure of people waiting on her command, dying by her orders.

 

It was refreshing, she imagined this is what a ‘vacation’ would have felt like, she read a lot of books about that kind of thing. She always thought them pointless, but now she understands, it’s relaxing.

 

She was dragged out of her thoughts by Karim “It’s time to move, Nia will be expecting our message by nightfall.” Karim said, motioning for Clarke to come. He kicked into the fire, putting it out quickly and started venturing out.

 

“How long should it take until we arrive?” Clarke said, whilst she put her coverings on over her face.

 

“We should reach the city by midday if we keep a decent pace up,” Karim said as they set off into the snow.

 

The sound of snow crunching lightly under their boots was the only noise that was heard around the for the next several hours, as they headed West to the city.

 

It was nearing midday by the time they started seeing, or rather, hearing anything. The noise of a caravan moving alerted them, but they soon enough realized it was just traders from the other clans moving through.

 

They moved onto the more worn down areas, that acted like paths even though they weren’t actual paths, and continued on their journey to the City.

 

An hour of walking on the road later, they found themselves coming to the outskirts of the City. The city had smaller walls than the Azgeda capitol, but they were still quite large, probably 5 meters high.

 

On the walls stood guards, clad in Ice Nation guard armor, most held a bow and a short sword. One or two had broadswords and others, who she assumed were officers, had much better-made armor and an array of weapons, bows, swords, knives, one even had a mace.

 

Hanging off the wall were ropes, attached to people, with the ropes around their necks, they had a sign over their each of their bodies in wood. She didn’t know what it read but Karim clarified what it was.

 

“Traitors to the Ice Nation.” He spat, disgust lacing his tone.

 

A large gate made of crude wood with thin metal bars going through it was held open, two guards on either side inspecting everyone that entered the city.

 

Above the gate held a sign, reading ‘Monim kom Sylva’ (Welcome to Sylva).

 

The writing was in white on top of a black wood sign hanging low off the wall.

 

As we neared the entrance to the city, one of the guards stepped forwards, ready to check us over, as he thought they were civilians entering.

 

As the guard got closer to the pair, Karim stepped forward pulling out a small cloth, inside it held a metal symbol of Azgeda.

 

The guard, upon seeing the symbol, granted them immediate entrance, he was not one to postpone the wishes of his queen.

 

They pair entered the city, Karim heading straight toward the City’s ‘Palace’, if you could call it that, it was just a building slightly bigger than the rest with blue banners hanging from the upper levels, the banners had the white hand of Azgeda on it.

 

They continued toward the Palace, where one of Nia’s loyalists ran the city. Clarke was nervous, in a new city she was much more suspicious of being found out, the Commander probably had spies, and this city would be easier to have them in than many others, it was far south and wasn’t well protected.

 

Luckily they entered the palace before Clarke’s paranoia got the better of her, inside the palace was simplistic. The first room was a long hall, furs lining the floor and doors to either side and at the end.

 

Torches lit the walls as they walked down it, escorted by a guard, the guard then opened the door at the end of the long hallway.

 

The guard then stepped aside revealing a young man, around 25, sat atop a large, throne-like, chair.

 

The man was dressed royally, but not as much as the queen. He donned white wolf fur on his shoulders, a white tunic and a slightly golden set of trousers.

 

He ordered the guards to leave, and they followed his orders. Once the doors closed behind Clarke and Karim, he finally spoke to them.

 

“Karim, and what do I owe the pleasure?” He said, with a fake smile plastered on his face.

 

“We need you to send a message to Nia,” Karim spoke, looking at the man, who, unknown to Clarke, was called Nikon and ran the city.

 

“And, what will this message be?” Nikon said, inspecting Karim and his assistant.

 

“It is done,” Karim said sternly, clearly disliking even speaking to Nikon.

 

“Alright, I will get my fastest rider to deliver it to Nia for you, any other services I can offer?” He said obnoxiously and cocky.

 

“No, that is all. A pleasure it has been.” Karim said, quick to get out the room they were in.

 

Karim quickly turned, and so Clarke did the same, and left the room, pushing the doors open quickly.

 

He paced down the hallway silently, Clarke closely following behind, moving quickly down the hallway.

 

Karim pushed open the doors at the end, his eyes attacked by the light outside of the palace compared to inside, but he kept on walking.

 

“His name is Nikon, he’s the lord of Sylva. He’s a traitor to Nia, but with no proof, we can’t do anything” He spat angrily, Clarke understood his hatred. Karim was dedicated to both the Ice Nation and Nia.

 

She decided it would be best to drop the subject, and offered that he should go and get some rest, after being awake for so long. Clarke had no doubt that he didn’t sleep in the cave, unlike Clarke, and that would mean he had been awake from before the fight until now.

 

Clarke hurried him into a nearby inn, paying for two rooms, the pair going up the stairs to reach their rooms.

 

The inn was a nice place and was quite cheap. It was a classic wooden cabin, made quite well, it had 12 rooms for people to sleep in as well as a bar area on the lowest of the 3 floors.

 

Karim entered his room, and Clarke waited until he had entered, then took a chance to leave.

 

Clarke was on a search for the marketplace, she wanted to buy some paints, as she had none with her, and as it was still daylight, and she wasn’t tired, she wouldn’t be able to sleep.

 

She soon enough found the marketplace, it wasn’t quite as big as the places she had been to, but it was still rather sizable, she just had to find the right shop.

 

Before long, she found an art shop, these were rather rare in the Azgeda community, as painting wasn’t something people thought was good, being a warrior was what people wanted to be, not a painter. Even with that, however, there were a few art stores, mainly for the smallest of children to have something to do.

 

She bought some paints and a canvas and headed back to the inn. She walked up the stairs, which were rather creaky even under her light feet, and slipped into her room. She sat on the bed, looking out the window for inspiration, but didn’t feel anything coming to her.

 

She continued to be sat there for a while and decided to draw the mountains that surround the capital of Azgeda.

 

She had been on and around the mountains a lot of the time. She enjoyed spending time up there, even with the cold, it was a very relaxing place for her.

 

Her training scheme often used the mountains, going up and down them quickly was quite the achievement that she could say she was able to do.

 

She continued to paint, making sure to get as much detail in as she could, even drawing the Capitol under the mountains in the picture, including a detailed image of the palace that she often spent time in.

 

Clarke had only recently been allowed out into the public eye, with her disguise and how much she had changed, no-one had noticed her, and that meant she spent a lot of time in the city. She often found herself walking the streets, waiting for someone to catch her as being ‘Wanheda’, or one of the Skaikru being there, even though she knew it wouldn’t happen.

 

She continued to think about a multitude of things until a knock on the door broke her from her thoughts. She always had her knife on her thigh and wasn’t scared to open the door, she wouldn’t be surprised to find a thief on the other side, waiting for her to open the door and try and take advantage of a poor trader's assistant.

 

She opened the door to see an Ice Nation guard at the door.

 

“Can I help?” Clarke asked politely, trying to act like a trader.

 

“Nikon has sent the messenger, and he said it should arrive 2 hours before nightfall.” The guard spoke in a deep but stern voice.

 

“Alright, well, thank you,” Clarke said in a dismissive manner, she closed the door once the guard had left and returned to her bed. She realized that it wouldn’t be long until nightfall, three or four hours at the most, and she would need some rest so she could set off early the next morning.

 

* * *

 

Clarke awoke to a noise, but she soon realized it was just the bustle of the early workers in the streets.

 

This had happened before when the duo had stayed in a city, as Clarke was training to alert at the slightest noise, and she was often sleeping in the palace chambers, which were far from the streets of the city, and there was little to no noise.

 

As her heart slowly stopped pumping so wildly, she got out of her bed, lightly going over to her armor and overshirt.

 

She just wore her undershirts to bed, as they were warm enough with the fur on and comfy. She put her weapons in the concealed places that she needed them in and put on her disguised armor.

 

As she was supposedly a ‘trader’ it was easy to get away with wearing armor. She could wear lots of furs over it, as where they usually went was much colder than this southern mission, so it looked normal.

 

Once she was wearing everything she needed to she went into the streets, going to sell or give away her art, as she couldn’t take it with her where she went, she had a few pieces she kept in the palace, but that was only a fraction of what she had painted in the time she had been there.

 

She opened the door out of the inn and headed towards the art supply store, where she would assume the owner would gladly accept the stuff she had to offer.

 

She followed the same path that she took to get to the Art supply store as last time, almost getting lost a few times, but, she made it there in the end.

 

She handed over the paints and the painting, telling the woman that it was a gift and that she couldn’t keep it anymore.

 

The owner, or at least she thought it was, accepted the gifts and didn’t seem to recognize Clarke as the woman who had purchased them the night prior.

 

When she had exited the shop, she took in the day around her. It was a calm day, the sun was quite hot on the back of her neck as she walked back towards the inn, and imagined it would be a long, hot trek back.

 

She walked up the stairs of the inn, knocking on Karim’s door. The door opened shortly after, with Karim looking ready to go. It wasn’t too early, but early enough that they would hopefully make it back the Capitol before nightfall.

 

The pair left the inn, thanking the innkeeper, and giving a small tip. They exited out the inn and head straight for the Northern gates.

 

Clarke was just hoping that they didn’t run into trouble on the way, they were behind schedule as it was, they weren’t anticipating a storm would hit, and that had slowed them down quite a bit, not to mention the fact that they had to stay overnight in the city, due to Karim.

 

They set out at a reasonable pace, one they knew they would be able to keep up until they reach the Capitol.

 

Clarke put her fur hood up, even if the sun was blaring down, the wind was freezing outside of the city’s safe walls.

 

Each foot she placed made little to no noise in the snow and she listened to anything else around her, maybe someone trying to rape her, as a mere trader would be abused by bandits.

 

Clarke started slowing down a little bit, her legs aching from the recent walking.

  
“Come, second, there is still a long way to go yet..” Karim said, laughing lightly at Clarke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clear some things up, if you were wondering, the reason he showed the symbol of Azgeda was to show he was protected by the queen. No-one would know who Karim is, as the leader of the assassins, and thus wouldn’t be recognized as someone with importance.
> 
> The guards were ordered to leave, as even the personal guards of Nikon wouldn’t be trusted with the knowledge of Karim being an assassin, only the utmost loyalists of Nia would know of him. People may know of his assassin name, but not his birth name.
> 
> Didn’t really explain this stuff in the story, as it would break the plot, but if you didn’t know what that was all about, there you go.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, also, do you prefer it to be based mainly around Clarke, or should it continue with the current theme of a mix of POV’s?
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I am going to get to work on the next chapter, and hopefully get back into writing this story for you all.
> 
> As always, have a great day,  
> Fries :D


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